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Holnicote (pronounced "Hunnicutt") in the parish of Selworthy, West Somerset, England, is a historic estate consisting of 12,420 acres (5,026 hectares) of land, much situated within the Exmoor.
There have been several houses on the estate over the last 500 years. In 1705 a new mansion was built which was burned down in 1779. It was rebuilt as a hunting lodge and survived until another fire in 1851 and replaced ten years later. It became one of the centres for the Devon and Somerset Staghounds. The main building was damaged by another fire in 1941. The house and surrounding estate were given to the National Trust in 1944 by Richard Acland. The house is now operated as an hotel. The surrounding land which includes Dunkery Hill and , and the villages and hamlets of Selworthy, Allerford, Bossington, Horner and Luccombe as well as the Dunkery and Horner Woods National Nature Reserve contains more than of Trail and bridleways.
In the 13th and 14th centuries the estate was held by the de Holne family. During the 17th century the Staynings were lords of the manor and in the 18th descendants of FitzMartin by then known as the Martyn family had taken over. William Martin sold Holnicote to William Blackford and it descended through his family and then passed to the Dyke family. Sir Thomas Acland married into the family and added the surname to become Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, 7th Baronet and it remained in his family until the donation in 1944.
There are several references in the Domesday Book to Honecote, Hunnecota or Hunecota in the hundred of Carhampton. One records land held by one William of the tenant-in-chief, Roger de Corcelle; prior to the Norman Conquest, this land belonged to two theigns called Aluric and Bristeuin. Odo, son of Gamelin, held a detached portion of this land. The second record shows two nuns holding two and half . The local historian and lawyer Charles Chadwyck-Healey identifies these manors with modern Holnicote, the National Archives agrees with him in their catalogue, and the Open Domesday project lists them under Holnicote, but the editors of the Victoria County History series only identify the land held by the nuns with Holnicote and state that de Corcelle's manor was actually Huntscott in Wootton Courtney.
There is scarce evidence regarding the holders of Holnicote in the period immediately after Domesday. William de Holne held the manor in the reign of Edward I. Although Chadwyck-Healey described it is "very probable" that this William de Holne is the same man recorded elsewhere with a son, Richard, whose daughter Thomasia married John, son of Walter Gofreye, the evidence is not conclusive. By the late 15th century, the Steynings family were claiming descent from the Huish and de Holne dynasties. Their origins are obscure and the earliest record of them is the will of William Steynings, which was proved in 1491. His son, Edward, died in 1524/5 and was succeeded by his son Walter; Edward Steynings's will refers to property at Holnicote. Eventually, his grandson Thomas became owner of the manor and house of Holnicote; he is listed in Crown account books as early as 1558. His younger brother, Philip (died 1588/9), succeeded him at Holnicote.
In 1775 he handed over the mastership to the then Major Basset, and in 1779 his beloved collection of stag heads and antlers at Holnicote was lost in a fire which also destroyed the house. He declared that "he minded the destruction of his valuables less bitterly than the loss of his fine collection of stags' heads". He was known on his estates as "Sir Thomas his Honour" (as later was his son the 9th Baronet) and was renowned for his generous hospitality at Holnicote or at Pixton, whichever was closest, to all riders "in at the death", and it is said that by the architect Anne Acland that "open house was kept at Pixton and Holnicote throughout the hunting season".Acland, 1981, p.19
Acland's eldest son died as a result of wounds aged 34. His grandson died at the age of 7 a few weeks after inheriting the baronetcy and so his second son, Thomas Dyke Acland (1752–1794), became the ninth Baronet. Like his father, he was known locally in Devon and Somerset as "Sir Thomas his Honour" and they shared a passion for stag hunting. He followed him into the Mastership of the North Devon Staghounds and virtually abandoned the family's main seat of Killerton in mid-Devon to live at Holnicote and Highercombe, near Dulverton, on the north and south edges respectively of the ancient royal forest of Exmoor, renown for its herds of red deer. During the period 1785 to his death in 1794 he killed 101 stags, the heads and antlers of many of which are still displayed in the stables at Holnicote. He was a stern employer of his hunt-staff, and on one occasion when his hounds had killed several sheep, possibly belonging to his farming tenants, he ordered his huntsman "to hang himself and the whole pack".
The estate passed down through the Acland family until February 1944, when Sir Richard Dyke Acland, 15th Baronet (1906–1990) donated the Holnicote and Killerton Estates to the National Trust, comprising , which was the largest ever donation received by the National Trust.
Holnicote Estate covers more than and contains more than of Trail and Bridle path. It includes Dunkery Hill and , and the villages and hamlets of Selworthy, Allerford, Bossington, Horner and Luccombe as well as the Dunkery and Horner Woods National Nature Reserve. The estate also plays host to a point to point course on which many Exmoor hunts hold their meetings throughout the spring.
Dunkery Beacon is the summit of Dunkery Hill, and the highest point on Exmoor and in Somerset. The sandstone hill rises to and provides views over the surrounding moorland, the Bristol Channel and hills up to away. The site has been visited by humans since the Bronze Age with several Tumulus in the form of and . Sweetworthy on the lower slopes is the site of two Iron Age or enclosures and a deserted medieval settlement. At the top of Selworthy Beacon is a National Trust plaque and a view of the south coast of Wales across the Bristol Channel. The South West Coast Path also climbs the hill and ends slightly shy of the summit. Its elevation is . Behind the hill, there are precipitous cliffs. Near the summit are a series of cairns, thought to be the remains of , and the Iron Age Bury Castle. The round cairns have been scheduled as an ancient monument. In the 16th century, Selworthy Beacon was the site of a beacon to warn of impending invasions. The mausoleum of Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, 10th Baronet is about from Selworthy Beacon. The hills have a deep purple colour during the summer due to the covering of Ericaceae. Ling and Erica cinerea, Ulex, Quercus petraea, Fraxinus, rowan, hazel, bracken, , Marchantiophyta, and all grow here or in surrounding woodland, as well as some unique whitebeam species. Exmoor pony, red deer, pied flycatchers, , lesser spotted woodpeckers, Common redstart, dippers, Common snipe, Alauda and Common kestrel are some of the fauna to be found here and in nearby Horner Woods. Horner Woods are also the home to 14 of the 16 UK bat species, which include barbastelle and Bechstein's bats.
Selworthy is a small village and civil parish which includes the hamlets of Bossington, Tivington, Lynch, Brandish Street and Allerford. Bossington is separated from Porlock Bay by a shingle beach, through which flows the River Horner, forming part of the Porlock Ridge and Saltmarsh Site of Special Scientific Interest. In the 1990s rising sea levels created salt marshes, and lagoons developed in the area behind the boulder bank. The village is on the South West Coast Path. Selworthy was rebuilt as a model village, to provide housing for the aged and infirm of the Holnicote estate, in 1828 by Sir Thomas Acland. Many of the other cottages, some of which are now rented out, are still Thatching and are , whose walls are painted with Whitewash that has been tinted creamy yellow with ochre. On the hill above the village is the whitewashed 15th-century Church of All Saints, with a 14th-century tower. One of Allerford's main attractions is the much-photographed packhorse bridge. Built as a crossing over the River Aller (from which the village gets its name), it is thought to be medieval in origin. The village is also home to Allerford House, childhood home of Admiral John Moresby, who explored the coastline of New Guinea and for whom Port Moresby, the capital city of Papua New Guinea, was named. Other features of the village include thatched cottages, a forge and an old-fashioned red telephone box. There is also a Reading Room, built by the Acland family to foster adult education. One of the thatched cottages operated as the local Primary School between 1821 and 1981 and is now a museum containing the West Somerset Rural Life Museum and Victorian School. The museum houses the West Somerset Photographic Archive.
The village of Luccombe lies at the foot of Dunkery Hill. Along with Stoke Pero and Horner it forms a civil parish. Horner is on the eastern bank of Horner Water on which there is a restored, but non-working, watermill. The river is crossed by two medieval packhorse bridges, one of which is known as Hacketty Way Bridge which is crossed by the Coleridge Way. The parish Church of St Mary has a chancel dating from about 1300, with the nave and tower being added around 1450. Stoke Pero Church has a 13th-century tower. The Dovecot at Blackford Farm is part of the estate. It was built in the 11th century and is a Grade II* listed building, and ancient monument. It was attached to a mansion house which burnt down in 1875.
Since 2009 the estate has been one of three Multi-Objective Flood Management Demonstration Schemes, funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, to examine how changes in the management of river catchment areas can influence the incidence and severity of flooding in the area. were re-introduced to assist flood reduction.
Somerset appears to be the only county council which provided homes explicitly for babies born to Black GIs. As Holnicote House was used as a nursery, children were only cared for there up to the age of five, after which they were fostered, adopted or sent to homes for older children. The children who were fostered at Holnicote House tended to be cared for by young nursery nurses. Lucy Bland, who interviewed over sixty children born to white mothers and Black American GI fathers for her 2019 book Britain's 'Brown Babies, talked to five people who were raised at Holnicote House, as well as three nursery nurses who worked there. All spoke very fondly about their time there.
On 23 August 1948, Life magazine published a feature entitled ‘The Babies They Left Behind Them’. This article, which was accompanied by a photo of children from Holnicote House, attracted international public interest in the issue of Britain’s ‘Brown Babies’ as the estimated 2,000 children from the relationships between Black GIs and white British women were dubbed by the Black American press.
The house is now operated as a hotel.
House and outbuildings
have been at least four successive mansion houses at Holnicote. Limited information is available about the early buildings. One is known to have been built between 1493 and 1521, based on dendrochronology from surviving timbers. The Grade II* listed gatehouse and attached cottage were built together with a new house in the early 17th century. Following the purchase of the estate by the Blackford family in 1705, a new mansion house was built on the site of the previous structure. Only the stable block from that building survives. The house was destroyed by fire in 1779. The Acland baronets re-built it as a thatched hunting lodge, which was also destroyed by fire in 1851, and replaced in 1861. A kitchen extension was added in 1874. The lodge was built in the 19th century. The estate includes several cottages including Rose Bower and the 17th-century Butlers Cottage. An 18th-century Flemish bond red brick granary also exists on the estate.
Holnicote House in the 20th century
Holnicote House was donated to the National Trust by Richard Acland of Killerton in Devon, whose ancestors had owned it since 1745. In 1936 the lodge became a hotel, but was badly damaged by yet another fire in 1941.
Mixed race children at Holnicote House during WW2
In 1943, Holnicote House was requisitioned by Somerset County Council, initially for use as a nursery for children evacuated from cities during World War 2. However, the council increasingly took children born to white British mothers and Black American GI fathers, possibly as an intentional policy. American GIs, including Black American troops, were stationed all over Britain, with a heavy concentration in south-west England. The children often arrived at Holnicote House as babies, some being only a few days or weeks old. This early placement is likely because at least two-thirds of the babies had married mothers. By 1948, there were 45 mixed race children of Black GIs in Somerset, of whom nearly half were placed in Holnicote House. (2025). 9781137339270, Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9781137339270
See also
Notes
Bibliography
(1992). 9780946159949, Dovecote Press. ISBN 9780946159949
(1981). 9780850333565, Phillimore & Co Ltd. ISBN 9780850333565
(2025). 9781841141404, Halsgrove. ISBN 9781841141404
(1996). 9780851156712, Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 9780851156712
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